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Circumstances modified in 2007 and Mr Donaldson additionally modified his stance. Following talks in Scotland, the DUP's veteran founder and chief, the Rev. Ian Paisley, ended his opposition to the Good Friday Settlement, and the DUP fashioned an alliance with Sinn Féin, previously the political wing of the IRA, within the devolved meeting of Belfast. I went. Mr Donaldson, whereas retaining his seat within the London Parliament, was additionally a member of the power-sharing Belfast Meeting, the place he served as a junior minister for a yr.
His tenure as chief of the DUP was dominated by his response to Brexit.
He turned DUP chief in 2021 after infighting introduced down its two earlier leaders, Arlene Foster and Edwin Poots, inside weeks of one another.
Though Northern Eire voted to stay within the EU within the 2016 Brexit referendum, Mr Donaldson, who leads the DUP from Westminster, has aligned unionism with probably the most hardline Brexit faction within the British Conservative Get together. Led by then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the group wished full withdrawal from all EU establishments, together with customs, manufacturing, environmental and veterinary protocols, permitting free commerce and motion throughout the Irish border.
In Eire and overseas, a frictionless Irish border was broadly thought of needed to take care of the peaceable established order following the Good Friday Settlement. So when the UK authorities, below heavy strain from the EU and the USA, agreed to impose customs and commerce checks between Northern Eire and the remainder of the UK reasonably than the Irish border, Mr Donaldson protested utilizing the DUP. An influence-sharing veto to topple the devolved authorities in Northern Eire in 2022.
After two years with no functioning authorities in Northern Eire and dropping the assist of hard-liners and moderates on each side of his celebration, Mr Donaldson lastly agreed to revive the meeting in January this yr.